What happens when the Court gets it really wrong when issuing a claim form? This question was dealt with recently in a case that made it as far as the Court of Appeal and deals with an important point of civil procedure. 

Walton v Pickerings Solicitors [2023] EWCA Civ 602, deals with the issue of Court errors and service of claim forms out of time. The Claimant (who was acting in person) attended the High Court to issue a claim form shortly before the end of the limitation period. The Court accepted the fee of £10,000 but failed to issue the claim as they had unfortunately lost the claim form. It was only when the Claimant chased the Court that they realised the error. In an attempt to rectify this, the Court office required the claimant to produce a new claim form which was finally sealed and issued almost five months after the claim had been filed.

Unfortunately, the Court sealed the new claim form on the 1 December 2020, with an issue date of 20 July. The Claimant received the papers on 7 December 2020 for service. The problem here is that the four month period for the valid service of a claim form (CPR 7.5) had expired by the time the Claimant received the sealed copy. 

Unsurprisingly this point was taken by the Defendants, who said that the claim should be struck out. The Claimant applied to extend the time for service of the claim form, however this was refused by a Deputy Master, and on appeal by the High Court. On a second appeal to the Court of Appeal, the decisions were reversed. 

The Court of Appeal ultimately held that the Court has no power at all to retrospectively date a claim form, so in this instance, the date of issue should be treated as 1 December 2020. The result being that: 

(a) The Claim was served in time; and

(b) Was not statute-barred as the limitation period runs from the date the claim form was received by the Court under Practice Direction 7A para 6.1.